House

This is the house we want but it's definitely on the HIGHEST end of what we could afford. And to be able to afford it we'd have to do some string pullin'. :) We would have to do it in time to get the $8000 tax rebate which ends April 30. We read that you still have time to close after April 30th, so I guess we'd have to make the offer by then I guess? But April 30 will be here like, TOMORROW practically. We'd also want to borrow the $8000 from a grandparent or something, put it down as part of the down payment to bring our monthly payment down, and then pay them back a couple of months later when we get our return. We would ALSO ask that the seller pays the closing costs. I think it's fair to offer the asking price minus closing costs, don't you?? :) So it would take some work. I have no idea. I emailed a realtor about seeing houses possibly this weekend but I haven't heard back from her yet. :(

3 Bedroom, 2 Bath in South Chico (about 10 mins closer to Paradise). I mostly love the yards. It also has a little storage shed outside, too. I like the wood floors too (even though they're probably not real!) I'd eventually want to paint the outside because that brown color is ugly. I'm not getting too excited because we proooobably won't be able to get it, but we'll see!

Books / Music

Greetings from the living room couch!

This is just the beginning of the stack of books I'm reading or are on my "to read" list.



Bright Lights, Big Ass is a book that Jessica Jackson got me for my birthday. Yep, back in November. I started it a couple of weeks after I got it. At one point I cleaned my house pretty well and cleared all of the clutter off of our coffee table including that book. After putting it on my book shelf, it was kind of an "out of sight, out of mind" situation and I forgot all about the book! I've never been much of a reader so it's not constantly on my mind to pick back up a book that I've started. Anyway, I finally picked it up again. I've been reading it while I do my foot detox bath. I usually just read one chapter at a time. Now I only have 3 chapters left. Yay! It's a very entertaining book. One that isn't deep, but more like reading an amusing journal or something. The book is basically little stories about the author's life. She used to have a kind of high-profile job but decided to pursue writing instead and was forced to keep up temp jobs in the mean time. She says her shopping "holy trinity" is Ikea, Target and Trader Joe's. My kind of girl! Anyway, she's pretty much hilarious but she kind of likes the F word. :-/ Like I said, it's been a go-to entertainment book, like watching TV, and not something that is going to GROW me. :)

The Lyme Disease Survival Guide is a book that I realllyyyy wanted for Christmas, and Nae got it for me. :) Connie, the author, has a lyme blog here on blogger as well as a video blog on Youtube. She seems smart and has Lyme herself, so she's done a lot of research and tried a lot of different treatments. She talks a lot about detox as treatment for Lyme. She's also a Christian and I think she has similar experience with me (and probably other Lymies) where sometimes she just has to give up and not think about Lyme at all. Leave her treatment in the hands of God instead of the hands of antibiotics. :) I just think she's going to have good advice and another perspective. I'm sad to say that I haven't even started the book yet. I skimmed through it on Christmas day on the way from Magalia to Chico after we picked up Ryan's grandpa. I think part of the reason that I didn't start it yet is because I kind of got sick of thinking about Lyme 18/24 hours a day! (The rest was spent sleeping, ya know). The antibiotics made me feel all yucky and messed up my stomach BIG TIME so after I went off of them I just wanted a break from thinking about meds. I still feel that way a little bit but I'm starting to get on track again; mostly because I want to be DONE with Lyme. I have a doc appointment in a couple of weeks so we'll see what they wanna do with me. *sigh* Anyway, I am looking forward to reading it.


On a similar note, I've read most of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia (also a Christmas gift from a previous year, haha), but I never finished it. Oh wait, I have a picture of my "excited" face to get a sicky-book from my husband for Christmas. LOL.



Back to the book - So, it has a treatment regimen that includes taking guaifenesin (found in lots of cold medicines), while eliminating all sources of salicylic acid. I'd explain the science behind it but 1, I don't really remember everything and 2, I'm not smart enough to explain it in my own words. It's a treatment I might have to resort to just to TRY if nothing else works. It wouldn't be too bad but it would require a lot of prep. Salicylic acid is in EVERYTHINGGG and I'd also have to eliminate anything with natural oils/extract/etc which would mean my beloved chapstick, minty toothpaste, certain shampoos, conditioners, hair products, etc. I might end up with really fluffy hair and orangey-scented teeth, but if it means I'm better then I don't care. :)

Dear John and The Last Song are both Nicholas Sparks books. Yes, he wrote A Walk to Remember and THE NOTEBOOK. Dear John and The Last Song have also just been made into movies too! Dear John just came out but I haven't seen it yet. I'll probably end up reading that book AFTER I see the movie. The Last Song comes out sometime in the next few months, so I can probably read that book before I see the movie. Even though it's going to star Miley Cyrus (BLEH!), I still think I want to see it. I won a lot of 5 Nicholas sparks books for pretty cheap on Ebay, so I will have a lot of his books on hand to read in the future if I ever get bored of our endless TV show addictions. The other books I have from him are The Rescue, The Wedding (sequel to The Notebook), and The Lucky One. They'll probably all be made into movies since so far the following movies are all based on his books: Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John, and The Last Song. DANNNG!

One other book I'm interested in re-reading is The Catcher in the Rye. I only thought of it 'cuz ol' J.D. Salinger kicked the bucket a few weeks ago. :( I'm guessing he was pretty old. Yep, looked it up... 91. That book is funny.

We've been downloading stuff from iTunes lately because I got a GC for Christmas and Ryan got one today. We're different about how we choose our songs. Ryan usually tries to pick all 15 songs or whatever all at once and searches through all kinds of artists until he finds all the songs he wants. I just pick a song here and there and download it when I want to and then leave the extra 8 credits or whatever until I think of another song I want to get. I think that way I don't "settle" for one. haha! I heard "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band on the Grammys and for some reason I really liked it even though it's the most honky-tonk country song EVER! I downloaded it. Even though it's not really my type of music I just think that they're really talented and the guy's voice is EXCELLENT. Recently I think Ryan developed a crush on Taylor Swift, and she also has 3 songs on our newest guitar hero game so I started to like her music, too. :) We just bought her CD today. I'm listening through it right now and it's pretty good so far. I like that she writes all of her music, especially for a young pop-ish girl because usually they need some serious help when it comes to writing. But she's good. I like that the songs come from her own mind and experiences. I just never though I'd be purchasing country CDs and songs, and especially that RYAN would like some of them, too. Although, I don't believe he's into the Chicken Fried song. haha! I've never liked country music much unless you count when I was little and I tried to convince myself that I liked it because my bestie liked it. Nope, doesn't count. Or when Lynae and I would turn it to the country station when we were in the car and try to guess the lyrics and sing along even though we didn't know the songs. For some reason we thought it was super duper hilarious. :) 'Member that, Nae?

A few other songs I downloaded recently: Rock & Roll - Eric Hutchinson, Angel - Jack Johnson (sooo cute. fav lyric is: "She can make angels. I've seen it with my own eyes. You gotta be careful when you've got good love, cuz the angels will just keep multiplying" He's talking about babies. awww!), umm, let's see... I'd Rather Be With You - Joshua Radin, Live Like We're Dying - Kris Allen, Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey (heck yes!!!), Breakeven - The Script. Good stuff. I read an interview yesterday from John Mayer and it made me feel all Barfy at what a weirdo/sicko he's become (or maybe he always was..?). Whatever. I still love his music! I used to - I know this sounds really funny - but I used to pray for him every once in a while. Just because I don't know him doesn't mean I can't pray for him! I think I should start again. He sounds confused like he doesn't know who he should be or how he should act. It kinda sucks. I'm happy when people are successful but I hate when fame ruins someone.

I guess I should go now. Now that you're thoroughly bored if you made it to the end of this. :)

http://www.lala.com/#song/360569470939005376/Zac_Brown_Band/Chicken_Fried

http://www.lala.com/#song/432627056443841271/Jack_Johnson/Angel

http://www.lala.com/#song/504684642129748704/Joshua_Radin/I%27d_Rather_Be_With_You

http://www.lala.com/#song/504684673844808514/John_Mayer/Edge_Of_Desire

Our new office

We are moved in to our new office now. Yayy! We still have some finishing touches (uhh, like a counter top on our new "breakfast bar"!) and some unpacking to do, but we're having fun getting settled. A couple of our designers came up with the color scheme. The colors are a little bit off in some of the pics, but the main colors are a beautiful dark chocolate brown and a pretty light blue. Then our accent colors are BRIGHT and loud. Lime green in the kitchen and orange on our skylights. It looks great! The carpet is almost black and matches really well. They painted part of the ceiling black for a dramatic effect, too. Then the pretty light blue is in the bathrooms, too. It's pretty sweet! We've been waiting for a long time to upgrade offices and we're lucky we were able to at this point in time, too.

Here's the empty office

and a few with our desks set up :)

The private offices (one for my boss) :)

This is our very own conference room! The one we had before was hmm, basically... a closet.

Lime green kitchen (unfinished breakfast bar. It'll eventually have pretty lights hanging down and a counter top).

Mole/Lost/Move

“Mole”. I remember when James learned that word. Haha. He had lots of spots on me to find them, too. He likes to point them out. I like how his little mouth makes a little “O” shape. He’s so cute.

I went to the dermatologist today because last week one of my moles kinda swelled up and then went it went back down it was all crusty and sometimes bloody. It was nasty. Today the doctor removed it and said that what most likely happened was that some kind of pimple or wart or other bump got underneath it, and that’s why it started acting up. He removed it and then did a little cauterization. BLEH. It was quite disgusting. He numbed it so it didn’t hurt, but it was still mighty disgusting. Now I have a hole in my face for the time being that I’ve only looked at for a second because it grosses me out. Plus, I’ve had a bandaid on it all day. I asked him about a few other little ones that were on my neck and a “skin tag” that I had in my armpit for years that I’ve always had to shave around. Barf. He said he’d cut them off as a “courtesy” (in other words, I don’t have to pay), since I was there anyway. He said “we don’t numb these little ones, we just snip them”. BARRRFFF! That kind hurt but not as much as I thought. Now they kinda feel like paper cuts. So, if you see me in the next few days looking like Nelly or something with a bandaid on my face, that’s why. (Lookin’ like a foo witchyo pants on the ground!). I hope the big hole that is there right now goes away like, tomorrow.

________________________________________

Anyway, I’m way excited about LOOOOSSSSTTTT. It starts in 1 week from today. I’ve been emailing back and forth with Carrisa today about it. We found an episode list for the first few. It’s from IMDB so I’m guessing it’s legit. I’m going to paste it here, so, if you’re one of those weirdos who can’t know ANNNYYYYTTTHHIINNNGGG about Lost until it airs, then close your eyes.

1. LA X (the space is intentional and is supposed to “mean” something)
2. What Kate Does (DOES! Not DID!)
3. (not named)
4. The Substitute
5. Lighthouse
6. Sundown
7. Dr. Linus
8. Recon
9. Ab Aeterno (means “since the beginning of time” and is SPOLIER!…sorta – A Richard-centric episode. Who would’ve guessed?! Haha)
Eps 10 & 11 are not named either.
12. Everybody Loves Hugo (Remind you of episode, “Everybody HATES Hugo”…??)
The rest of the episodes aren’t named yet.

I can’t wait! I wonder why they haven’t named #3 yet? Weird.

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In a few days my work office is moving from the building we’re in now to a building on the other side of downtown. It’s going to be bigger and WAY cooler looking on the inside. They just remodeled it and re-painted everything. My boss is going to have her own office (sweet!), and we’re going to have extra space and more room to grow. I can’t wait to move. I’m going to pack up all of my desk stuff tomorrow, and then we move on Thursday. I have a feeling it won’t take me long to unpack, and someone in the other office is doing my work-related responsibilities that day since we don’t know when our network will be up, so HOPEFULLY that means I just get to go home early. Yayyy!

I got glasses!

They're called "Drama Queen". Tee hee hee! :)

AHHH!

-A certain person at work is bugging the CRAP out of me. I can't wait to move offices on the 28th and maybe have an area alone-ish.

-I have a big headache.

-The (expensive) ionic foot bath I bought isn't working and I have to find a time to get in contact with the maintenance dudes who probably can't help me much more than the directions can.

-People bug me.

-The ceiling near our sliding glass door is leaking. (Must call landlord tomorrow. Oh, and the foot bath people. Oh, and the new loan officer at the bank. Oh, and probably Stephanie so I can get a MASSAGE!)

-2 of our burners on our electric stove get hot even when they're not turned on so I have to leave them unplugged and the tray below gets full of crumbs. (Add to landlord list).

-I'm hungry but I'm supposed to eat one of my SmartOnes for dinner which for some reason right now sounds equivalent to poop. That is, a SMALL portion of poop.

-I have an appointment with Mitch and my doctor on Monday. I get to take at least 2 hours out of my day so that they get to charge me to say "the pills aren't working" and for them to say "try them for another month and we'll re-evaluate". I should probably reschedule for another month from now. (Ohh, another person to call. yay! from work! While I can't think straight because SOMEONE is constantly screaming.)

-It's raining non-stop which depresses me and makes me wanna stay in bed allllll dayyyyy.

-I feel bad for bitchin and complaining when my life could be 1000 times worse. I need to be thankful for all of the things that are RIGHT instead of dwelling on what is NOT right. Sometimes venting is a necessity though. :(

What's new?

Ohhh, you know. Not a ton. But I thought I should post anyway.

This week I saw the eye doctor. For the last 6 - 12 months or so I've noticed my vision changing a little bit. It hasn't been a huge change, and I can see fine close up, but my distance vision was getting blurrier. I tried on Carrisa's glasses one time in church and I could see the words on the screen WAY more clearly. Anyway, I'm getting glasses in a week or two but I only have to wear them sometimes. The doc said I should wear them when I'm driving, especially at night, and if i go to the movies or something. Basically anytime I need to see far away. I won't need them at work to see the screen since my vision is fine. It was SO hard for me to pick out frames and I guess I didn't even realize that I'd have to pick them out that same day. The nice lady helped me. She was very helpful, but she was a little bit older so she might have different taste. But I think I like the ones I got as much as I'm going to like any other pair. I tried on a million of them and felt like a big dork in every single one. I'm looking forward to trying them out though, and being able to see far away if I want to! :) YAYYY. Please don't laugh behind my back. hahaha.

Today I took Ryan to the toe doctor to get a procedure done to prevent ingrown toenails in the future. He's had a history of problems with ingrown toenails, which had gotten worse after Tyler stomped his toenail off about a year ago. Anyway, I got the procedure done on one side of one of my toes when I was younger (12-ish?), and it wasn't too bad at all. Ryan got himself a bit worried about it and I kept telling him it was going to be fiiiiine. After he was done he told me and the doctor that it was "1000 times better" than he thought it was going to be. Yayyy! We'll see how he does in the next few days while he's healing up. Anyway, I watched most of the procedure and it was pretty much disgusting. But I don't really mind that stuff. The worst part was watching him do the numbing shots. I think that was the worst part for Ryan, too, because that's pretty much the only part that he could actually feel. Anyway, Blood. Toenails. Ew. Right? Bleh.

I don't know what my last update on my health was on this blog, so I'll just give a short update. So, they took me off of antibiotics which has made a big difference on how my tummy has been feeling. It was awful before, but much better now. Still not back to normal though. I need to pump myself full of probiotics. I got myself some drinkable yogurt (sounds weird but this particular brand is really good!) so that I can increase the good stuff in my belluh. :) I only did hyperbaric for 2 weeks this last time. I didn't notice any difference this time around. That's kind of why they took me off of the antibiotics. Lyme is never easy to diagnose and they don't usually say 100% sure if you have it or not. The tests aren't always clear. So, we're still pretty sure that it is Lyme but since I wasn't reacting to treatment it is possible that it was doing more harm than good. I got a Lyme book for Christmas from Nae that I have yet to read, but I'm excited to finish. :) (Did that make sense?) I found the author online - she has a blog and also a video blog on youtube. She isn't a doctor but she has lyme herself and she's done a lot of research. She's also a Christian and not only has lots of tips about lyme, but she has good advice from a biblical perspective, too. I have like at least 5 books on my "to read" list. She talks alot about detoxing so that's probably what I'm going to look into next. I'm getting one of those ionic foot baths and it has two hookups so Ryan can do it with me and get rid of his toxins, too. :) I will also need to start taking the cholostyramine powder again which is a toxin binder. I got a skin brush so that i can do dry brushing which rids toxins from your lymph system. She also suggests doing coffee enemas but that sounds SCARRRYYY! EEEEWWW. For now they have me on Plaquinel and that's it (yayy!) (er, besides BC and lexapro), but it's cut my pill intake down from like 91 to like 21 pills per week which is awesome! I haven't noticed a change yet, but we'll see. I have a doc appt in a week or two.

Seriously? Were the last 3 subjects about doctor appointments? Ugh, we're so lame and old.

Lost starts in less than 3 weeks! I'm so excited! It's the final season which sucks buuuut, hopefully our questions will finally be answered! One of the things bugging me the most so far HOW does Locke know soooo much in Season 1?! If you re-watch it, it's crazy. He knows all kinds of stuff ahead of time so it seems like he's either been there before or someone is "advising" him. WEIRD. I can't wait for the final season. 24 starts soon, too. This weekend, I think! yaayyy. It looks like a good season. I think Kiefer is supposed to be on Kimmel tonight. By the way - his eyebrows are SOOOO overplucked! (Jimmy, not Kiefer). It looks really weird. Check it out sometime.

I love my husband so much! I was just thinking today about how much he makes me laugh. It's usually stupid stuff, but he's so silly. He was really loving today. I took him to his appointment and made sure he was okay. (haha) And I think he was really thankful for that. He kept telling me thank you and giving me hugs and kisses. I love when he is happy, especially if it's partially my doing! :) He thanks me for silly things like cooking the take and bake pizza that HE went to pick up. HAHAHA! Uhhh, I just stuck it in the oven, silly.

Anyway, i know this was a really random post (and just fyi, I'm not going to re-read it or spell check, so deal with it). But, I need to go to bed soon because I'm really, really tired and it's past midnight which is late enough for my old-arse.

Goodnight!

PS - I hate, hate, hate being outbid on Ebay! It makes me SAD!